5-Minute Time Out: Lisa Henson
The Jim Henson Company CEO on their new cartoon series.
by Gwynne Watkins
October 1, 2008
Having said that, I've heard that you're revisiting Fraggle Rock and Dark Crystal with new movies…
Yeah, we are! [Laughs] And we do want to keep that balance where we have certain properties that are important legacy properties for us and at the same time do Sid the Science Kid, which is an equally huge endeavor, or the Unstable Fables, which were three full-length videos. The new things that we're doing are a lot of work, as will be the Fraggle Rock movie and the Dark Crystal movie, but we want to have a balance between the old things and the classic titles.
Do you have a sense of what they're going to look like? 
Images from Unstable Fables: Tortoise Vs. Hare
We're going to be using puppetry. Those are properties where we feel like the audience is going to be really disappointed if we just suddenly started doing the Fraggles and Dark Crystal in full CG.
Did living with Jim Henson make the Muppets seem more or less real to you?
Oh, less real, because we were always involved in the behind-the-scenes, and we spent hours and hours in the workshop. When you're in a workshop, you're learning how to stitch things and glue things and how things are put together. And then on the production side, I learned from a really early age how shows are put together — you know, the scripting, the directing, and the editing, or in the control rooms — there really were no mysteries for me growing up, and so I would definitely say the puppets were not real. But we were always lucky enough to be at the germinal stage of the character creation, and there's a bit of magic in that anyway, so we did get to experience the magic, but in a different way, just seeing how the creative process and the spark of originality unfolds.
Was there any particular character or project that you take credit for?
There are certain small puppets in The Muppet Show that my sister and I remember building, and I'm still fond of a particular tomato in the Swedish Chef episodes. And then I see the tomato years later — I think it was in Muppet Christmas Carol, singing in a fruit stand — and I'm like, "There's my tomato that I made on spring break!" [laughs] I think we also built some of those famous lobsters that did the getaway, but really I was more fond of the tomato, because I believe that was entirely my own creation.
©2008 Gwynne Watkins and Nerve Media
About the Author
|
|
Related Articles
|
|
Gwynne Watkins was Babble's founding Senior Editor. She has written for a variety of web and print publications, and her theatrical work has been produced throughout the New York area. Her new family musical, Tea with Chachaji, will premiere in early 2010. |
|
|
-
by Kevin Keck
My mother assaulted my teachers, and now my wife is gunning for our son's.
-
by Rebecca Odes & Ceridwen Morris
How do I protect my kid from the jerk in his class?
-
by Holly Korbey
Why I didn't "redshirt" my kindergarten-age son.
|
